2016 North American Conferencing Services Product Line Strategy Leadership Award 2016
Contents Background and Company Performance... 3 Industry Challenges... 3 Product Line Strength and Customer Impact... 4 Conclusion... 8 Significance of Product Line Strategy... 9 Understanding Product Line Strategy Leadership... 9 Key Benchmarking Criteria... 10 Best Practice Award Analysis for Arkadin... 10 Decision Support Scorecard... 10 Product Line Strength... 11 Customer Impact... 11 Decision Support Matrix... 12 The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards... 13 Research Methodology... 13 Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices... 14 About Frost & Sullivan... 15 Frost & Sullivan 2016 2 We Accelerate Growth
Background and Company Performance Industry Challenges The conferencing services market is in a state of rapid transition. The segments comprising the total market, including hosted audio, web and video conferencing as well as managed video conferencing services will each experience varying growth rates over the next seven years. As a result, total market will be spurred by high growth rates of new services and tempered by the commoditization of mature technologies and services. Frost & Sullivan forecasts the total North American conferencing services market to experience a 4.1 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), with revenues of $4.45 billion generated in 2014 and estimated to reach $5.89 billion in 2021. Uneven growth rates in the different conferencing market segments pose certain challenges for providers seeking long-term stability and success. The mature audio conferencing services sector is facing commoditization with persistent downward price pressures which will significantly impact overall revenue growth. The established and still healthy web conferencing services market is increasingly crowded with competing solutions that make it more difficult for providers to stand out and gain new business. The established and mature managed video conferencing services sector is experiencing little churn as most customer organizations are locked into provider relationships, yet this space is forecast to experience smooth growth as businesses continue to outsource solutions management to trusted providers. The hosted and cloud video conferencing services segment is expected to buoy aggregate conferencing services market health as organizations avoid large capital investments in favor of subscription-based service delivery from providers. Conferencing services and capabilities offered as part of unified communications (UC) bundles will also compete against stand-alone solutions. Conferencing service providers (CSPs) are expected to increasingly compete against enterprise communications vendors offering conferencing capabilities at very compelling price points. While most of the enterprise communications vendors offer full-blown conferencing capabilities as part of their premium-tier UC packages, Frost & Sullivan expects multi-party conferencing capabilities to become included in mid- and entry-level UC bundles as competition intensifies. In regards to visual collaboration, some workers are still uncomfortable with the idea of having a video call, instead of an audio-only interaction, while others do not simply perceive value in using it. Certain businesses have cultures or industry status quos that are still against pervasive video. Additionally, past experiences with buggy, low quality, early iterations of business conferencing solutions or consumer options discourage certain users from trying them again. One thing is certain: there is still a high degree of subjectivity associated with video. To some it is highly valuable; to others it is a negative. Frost & Sullivan 2016 3 We Accelerate Growth
A provider with a broad product line is better positioned to address these challenges. In the North American conferencing services market, where customers are inundated with options, product line strategy leadership enables a provider to offer a differentiated and compelling collaboration services portfolio that meets the needs of diverse customer groups. This leads to greater visibility with customers and prospects and the opportunity to grow faster than competitors in the market. Furthermore, a comprehensive services portfolio also enables a provider to more successfully attract technology and channel partners, thereby expanding its growth opportunity. In general, diversified providers are often chosen among other competitors in the conferencing services space due to depth and breadth of their service offering and their one-stop-shop nature. Product Line Strength and Customer Impact Frost & Sullivan is pleased to recognize Arkadin for its distinguished product line strategy in the North American conferencing services market. In 2015 Arkadin continued to demonstrate its commitment to offer a full-fledged service offering in the North American conferencing services market by announcing new service updates, striking new technology partnership deals, and enhancing its overall conferencing service proposition. Arkadin s strategy has positioned the company as one of the top ten North American conferencing services vendors and as a fierce competitor in the overall global conferencing and collaboration space. Breadth Arkadin offers a complete suite of conferencing and collaboration solutions that address a large variety of customer needs. Its audio conferencing services portfolio ranges from reservationless 24/7 audio conferencing services (ArkadinAnytime) to high-profile attended conferencing events (ArkadinEvent). * Audio conferencing services are complemented with a complete set of web and video collaboration solutions. On the web conferencing front, Arkadin provides audio communications integration with ArkadinAnywhere, the company s internally developed web conferencing solution; Adobe Connect powered by Arkadin; and Cisco WebEx provided by Arkadin. * On the video front, Arkadin offers video managed services as well as hosted video conferencing services, including ArkadinVideo powered by Vidyo and Blue Jeans provided by Arkadin. * For web events, Arkadin provides several options, including: Arkadin Web Event; Arkadin Webcast from ON24 or Nasdaq; Arkadin Virtual Show; and Arkadin Webcast Elite, ON24s self-service webcasting solution. Frost & Sullivan 2016 4 We Accelerate Growth
* In addition, Arkadin offers audio conferencing integration, customer service, and professional services with various unified communications solutions, including Microsoft's Skype for Business (hosted and on-premises), Cisco Jabber and IBM Sametime. Arkadin s strategy demonstrates an unwavering focus on providing a one-stop-shop for unified communications and collaboration services delivered in the cloud for fast scalable deployments. Technology Leverage In addition to considerable R&D investments and continuous enhancements of its in-house technology, Arkadin leverages an extensive ecosystem of established unified communications (UC), web and video partners. Adobe, Blue Jeans, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Nasdaq OMX, ON24, and Vidyo, among others, enable Arkadin to deliver on its commitment to provide customers with industry-leading solutions for solving all their communications requirements. Today, Arkadin is a leading provider of best-of-breed communications tools that deliver maximum customer value. Arkadin also leverages its relationship with parent NTT Communications. As an NTT Group company, and one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, Arkadin s clients have a solid and reliable business partner who can meet a broad range of IT needs from consultancy, architecture design, system integration and interoperability, and cloud and security services. The NTT relationship offers Arkadin key competitive differentiators: NTT s global data centers and networking capabilities enable a cutting-edge infrastructure to deliver high reliability, stability and consistency as well as cost savings to clients. Integration with NTT Communications Arcstar platform enables additional integration with UC solutions and SIP trunking. And NTT has enabled Arkadin to form a highly complementary relationship with Dimension Data to further enhance its service offering. Arkadin is expected to see growing conferencing and collaboration opportunities in conjunction with its parent company. Features Arkadin audio conferencing services are often praised for their ease of use, audio quality, pricing, support, and integration capabilities. All of their collaboration services offer hybrid audio with simultaneous PSTN and VoIP access a combination that maximizes audio potential and offers competitive pricing. A compelling competitive differentiator is their Cloud Collaboration Platform. This IP network enables worldwide PSTN and IP connections via a single list of country access numbers, all converging to an intelligent dispatcher which routes to the appropriate conference bridge. Unlike other types of conferencing architectures, an international conference is hosted on one single local bridge, eliminating the need for multiple IP links Frost & Sullivan 2016 5 We Accelerate Growth
among several bridges. Premium audio quality and call availability is achieved by eliminating the typical delays during connections between bridges and the risk of quality degradation when transmitting VoIP. Audio quality and call availability are also assured by allowing third-party organizations to continuously measure Arkadin s bridges and provide certified results to all Arkadin customers and prospects. Finally, high network security is assured via Arkadin s closed private network which offers high platform resiliency and complete redundancy. In the visual conferencing services sector, ArkadinAnywhere and ArkadinWebcast are often recognized due to their simplicity, security, intuitive interfaces, mobile integration, customization capabilities, and overall video quality. Features such as instant access from browsers without software installation, one-click document and desktop sharing, and realtime analytics are appreciated by Arkadin customers. Arkadin also offers a distinguished UCaaS offering under the name of Arkadin Total Connect, a Microsoft Skype for Business hosted service which includes instant messaging, presence, telephony, audio/web/video conferencing, shared workspaces and email. By leveraging the 2014 acquisition of implement.com, a leading Seattle-based cloudconsulting firm and Microsoft specialist, Arkadin has fully armed its cloud collaboration offering with a concrete multi-tenant platform hosted in the Arkadin Cloud. In addition to custom implementations, the company offers its UCaaS offering in three bundles: Arkadin Total Connect Pro, Arkadin Total Connect for Office 365, and Arkadin Total Connect Lync Expansion. Professional end-user support, training, migration and change management capabilities ensure efficient rollouts. Few conferencing service providers have moved to the stage of offering a full-fledged UCaaS stack. Finally, as mobility and BYOD support are becoming top priorities for enterprises to drive greater employee productivity, Arkadin has launched its mobile applications to meet market needs. All ios, Android and BlackBerry users can launch and manage their audio and web conferences from wherever they are. Customer Ownership Experience Many customers say they are proud to use Arkadin solutions and that they have a positive experience throughout the life of the products or services. Arkadin conferencing services address key customer pain points and help business users become more efficient and productive. Testimonials from satisfied organizations in different vertical industries abound in their client roster. To ensure a premium experience throughout the life of their services, Arkadin offers end-to-end service support and expert advice as well as various service incentives and promotions, including attractive pricing, service discounts and special promotional packages. Arkadin has been customer-focused from day one. Seventy percent of its employees are directly involved in client-facing roles, an important factor in Frost & Sullivan 2016 6 We Accelerate Growth
attracting and retaining its 42,000 customers worldwide. Arkadin s North American customer service team has been continuously recognized for exceeding results in client satisfaction metrics related to high retention rates, low churn rates, low customer service call wait times, and high client satisfaction scores. Customer Service Experience Effectively addressing customer requirements with a streamlined customer service process is an on-going challenge for many conferencing service providers. Arkadin s differentiated conferencing services portfolio is complemented by a superior customer service experience. Arkadin operates in 33 countries and 56 offices around the world. One of the keys to the company s success is its global yet local approach to service. Arkadin provides technology, conferencing bridges, and live assistance 24/7 in all of its markets. Local teams ensure that Arkadin will understand customers' unique professional and cultural needs and react quickly and efficiently. All operators have frequent training and are product certified in all services and upgrades. Finally, a la carte services are available to businesses tailored to specific needs. Arkadin's team of Professional Services experts helps companies throughout the deployment of their collaboration solutions with consultancy and project management, integration to existing systems, branding services, and dedicated reporting. This ensures clients have efficient rollouts and rapid adoption of services. Arkadin runs annual customer satisfaction surveys to measure its performance. This proactive approach ensures customer needs and challenges are identified and addressed in a timely manner. Brand Equity Arkadin has fast established a position as a full-fledged conferencing service provider in the North American conferencing services market, and as such the company today is widely perceived as a leading contender in the industry. Since its inception, the company has wisely allocated resources to marketing and promoting its brand and has efficiently done so in all regions of the world, including the North American theater. Recognizing the strong brand value that Arkadin holds, NTT Communications acquired Arkadin in 2013 to position the subsidiary as its collaboration arm. The company s brand value is expected to increase exponentially with the support of NTT Communications as its parent and partner. Specifically, NTT America, the wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation, is expected to further boost Arkadin s brand recognition in the North American region through the NTT America Channel Partner Program. Today, more businesses in North America recognize Arkadin s business value proposition and competitive differentiators in the conferencing and collaboration space. Frost & Sullivan 2016 7 We Accelerate Growth
Conclusion Arkadin s solid conferencing services product line portfolio, technology leverage, tight customer focus, and strong brand recognition in the North American conferencing services market are among the factors that have helped the company to excel in this industry and stand out from the competition. Because of its strong overall performance, Arkadin is recognized with Frost & Sullivan s 2016 Product Line Strategy award. Frost & Sullivan 2016 8 We Accelerate Growth
Significance of Product Line Strategy Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon customers purchasing from your company, and then making the decision to return time and again. A full, comprehensive product line that addresses numerous customer needs and preferences is therefore a critical ingredient to any company s long-term retention efforts. To achieve these dual goals (customer value and product line strength), an organization must be best-in-class in three key areas: understanding demand, nurturing the brand, and differentiating from the competition. Understanding Product Line Strategy Leadership As discussed above, driving demand, brand strength, and competitive differentiation all play a critical role in delivering unique value to customers. This three-fold focus, however, must ideally be complemented by an equally rigorous focus on building a superior and comprehensive product line. Frost & Sullivan 2016 9 We Accelerate Growth
Key Benchmarking Criteria For the Product Line Strategy Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently evaluated two key factors Product Line Strength and Customer Impact according to the criteria identified below. Product Line Strength Criterion 1: Breadth Criterion 2: Scalability Criterion 3: Technology Leverage Criterion 4: Features Criterion 5: Supply Chain Reliability Customer Impact Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience Criterion 5: Brand Equity Best Practice Award Analysis for Arkadin Decision Support Scorecard To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation; ratings guidelines are illustrated below. RATINGS GUIDELINES The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Product Line Strength and Customer Impact (i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the definitions for each criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies. Frost & Sullivan 2016 10 We Accelerate Growth
The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3. Measurement of 1 10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent) Product Line Strategy Product Line Strength Customer Impact Average Rating Arkadin 9.5 9.5 9.5 Competitor 2 8.5 9.0 8.8 Competitor 3 8.0 8.0 8.0 Product Line Strength Criterion 1: Breadth Requirement: Product line addresses the full range of customer needs and applications Criterion 2: Scalability Requirement: Product line offers products at a variety of price points and functionality levels Criterion 3: Technology Leverage Requirement: Demonstrated commitment to incorporating leading edge technologies into product offerings, for greater product performance and value Criterion 4: Features Requirement: Products offer a comprehensive suite of features to serve customers at multiple levels of functionality, ease of use and applications Criterion 5: Supply Chain Reliability Requirement: There is sufficient control over the supply chain to ensure availability of key components and thereby the availability of products in the product line Customer Impact Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar offerings in the market Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience Requirement: Customers feel like they are buying the most optimal solution that addresses both their unique needs and their unique constraints Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company s product or service, and have a positive experience throughout the life of the product or service Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality Frost & Sullivan 2016 11 We Accelerate Growth
Customer Impact BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH Criterion 5: Brand Equity Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty Decision Support Matrix Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard, analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at best-in-class levels. High Arkadin Competitor 2 Competitor 3 Low Low Product Line Strength High Frost & Sullivan 2016 12 We Accelerate Growth
The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards Research Methodology Frost & Sullivan s 360-degree research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree-view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Too often, companies make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. The integration of these research 360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN THE CHAOS disciplines into the 360-degree research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels. Frost & Sullivan 2016 13 We Accelerate Growth
Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices Frost & Sullivan Awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate award candidates and assess their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are based on close adherence to this process. STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT 1 Monitor, target, and screen Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe Conduct in-depth industry research Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all bestpractice criteria 2 Perform 360-degree research Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners Assess candidates fit with best-practice criteria Rank all candidates Matrix positioning all candidates performance relative to one another 3 Invite thought leadership in best practices Perform in-depth examination of all candidates Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all candidates Identify any information gaps Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates 4 Initiate research director review Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives on candidates performance Update candidate profiles Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper 5 Assemble panel of industry experts Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders Share findings Strengthen cases for candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates Refined list of prioritized award candidates 6 Conduct global industry review Build consensus on award candidates eligibility Hold global team meeting to review all candidates Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all eligible candidates Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide 7 Perform quality check Develop official award consideration materials Perform final performance benchmarking activities Write nominations Perform quality review High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees successes 8 Reconnect with panel of industry experts Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria 9 Communicate recognition Inform award recipient of award recognition Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for continued success Celebrate the recipient s performance Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand 10 Take strategic action Upon licensing, company may share award news with stakeholders and customers Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award s role in future strategic planning Widespread awareness of recipient s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees Frost & Sullivan 2016 14 We Accelerate Growth
About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com. Frost & Sullivan 2016 15 We Accelerate Growth